Slideshow

Guatemala made a formal request to Belize last week to vary treaty agreements to allow her to hold her referendum on Belize along with national elections.
National elections in Guatemala are scheduled for Thursday, September 6. Run-off elections will be held on Tuesday, October 20, to select the next President and Vice President, based on the September 6 results.

The referendum could come as early as September 6, or as late as October 20.
Belize is not ready for such an early referendum, and so the original idea of both countries holding referendums on the same day will have to be sacrificed.
Will anything be lost by not having the referendums on the same day?

Yes! We think so. The result of the Guatemalan referendum is bound to affect the Belize result. If the Guatemalan electorate votes to approve the referendum, it will put some pressure on Belize to approve as well.

If on the other hand Guatemalans vote to reject the referendum, Belize will almost certainly reject it. It is fair to say that the Guatemalan decision to combine general elections with the referendum is an unanticipated development which has dimmed the prospect for an International Court of Justice settlement.

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In our Editorial two weeks ago The Reporter made a comment to say that the Belize Bank and Atlantic Bank Limited are the only two banks in Belize engaged in offshore banking operations.

Last week Atlantic Bank wrote to say that the bank “does not have any ownership interest in any entity licensed under the International Banking Act.”
The Reporter stands corrected and we apologize for our mistake.